Thursday Thunks

June 25, 2009 in Thunks | 5 comments

Welcome to the June 24th version of Thursday Thunks!thursdaythunks
(which we always seem to post on Wednesday)
Where we make you think a little bit before you blog!
This week we will answer some crazy questions brought to you by Berleen, the number 1559 and the color calico.
 
1. Someone knocks at your door. You answer it. It’s a kid from the local school selling candy bars for a fundraiser. Do you buy one? Depends on how grumpy I’m feeling at the time, which in turn will depend on what I was doing when they knocked on the door. Woe betide anyone who interrupts me when I’m watching Dr Who, for instance…

2. The end of the world is tomorrow and you are out of milk – do you go buy some? Nope, black coffee seems appropriate for the end of the world as we know it (but I feel fine)

3. Have you ever picked up the phone and called someone that you hadn’t talked to in years? But why haven’t they called me?

4. Whats on your computer desktop background? Torchwood Children of Earth official BBC wallpaper

5. What was the very first movie you saw in a movie theater? The Lady & The Tramp, I think, though legend has it that when I was very small I had to be removed from a screening of Thunderbirds Are Go! because it was too loud and made me cry.

6. If you had to take a 10th grade science test, do you think you would pass? Lord, no!

7. Describe heaven. Is a place on earth? Is actually a house full of books and music that I can spend as much of my time in, preferably with comfy sofas, Tiffany lamps and an air of Victoriana. Not that I want to be too prescriptive, you understand.

8. Has a place that you lived ever been infested with some sort of insect or rodent? Not that I know of, I would have freaked out.

9. When you were a youngin’, did you hide in the clothes racks at department stores? Yes.

10. Is there anything in your vehicle that is broken? Don’t have a vehicle.

11. What is something in your house that people would be surprise to find? My collection of Tarot decks.

12. Do you agree with the death penalty? No

13. Whats your favorite type of bear? Polar

14. Where was the last place you went? Work

15. What if that person knocking at your door earlier was an adult selling candy bars… would you buy one? It would depend on how good looking he was………

Recent purchases and a mini-review

June 24, 2009 in Book buys, Reviews | Tags: , | 1 comment

TheJournalofJoyceCarolOat48874_fI’ve been reading a little of the Journal of Joyce Carol Oates each morning over breakfast before heading out to work (which is probably why it’s taken me so long to finish it….) but it has been a very rewarding experience getting inside the mind of one of my absolutely favourite authors. Reading journals and letters certainly satisfies something deeply inquisitive in my nature, and although I know published works like this do leave a lot of stuff out, I am still learning more than I would otherwise about someone I admire hugely. I still don’t know how she finds the time to teach, write so prolifically and have what seems to be a contented life, but I’m very, very glad that she does.

I’ve also started book buying again despite my resolution in January to cut back. I suppose I’m not buying quite as many as I used to, but given how many books there are in this house that I haven’t got round to reading then any new purchases are probably a bad idea. Anyway, the newest additions are:

Music for Torchingby AM Homes – an incendiary novel, apparently; read some of her other stuff an found it challenging and interesting so thought I would give this one a go;

Human Smoke by Nicholson Baker – the beginnings of WWII, the end of civilization, unusual structure for a non-fiction work about the war;

Dear Husband by Joyce Carol Oates – a new collection of short stories.

I’ve also been inspired by reading the Journal to buy a couple more Joyce Carol Oates to add to the ever-growing pile….

The Worst Thursday Thunks Ever – apparently…

June 18, 2009 in Thunks | 5 comments

thursdaythunksThis week we will answer some crazy questions brought to you by Kimber, the number 3000 and the color grape ape.

1. Are your ears dirty? No

2. Would you rather be stung by a scorpion or bit by a snake? (Don’t say either…no one wants to be in pain, that’s the point. Pick one.) Snake

3. Do loud noises make you snappish? (i.e. A loud restaurant, screaming child next to you, booming stereo from a neighbor’s house?) Sometimes, but other times it’s the quiet that really gets to me….
4. PETA- thoughts on this org.? Nope
5. Would you rather be the discoverer of the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot? (Imagination!) Definitely the Loch Ness Monster; it really does exist you know
6. When in a public toilet and it’s not flushed: do you flush & use or move on to a clean one? Ooh too personal…..
7. Neighbors are having a noisy, party bonfire, what do you do? Ask why I wasn’t invited?
8. Do you play Monopoly? If so which version of the game? Not for a while, but always classic London version. Very fond of Vine Street
9. Are you a remote hog? Chance would be a fine thing
10. Do you like the smell of paint? Yes, as long as someone else is doing the work….
11. My questions obviously suck this week. {I’ve had a bad week.} So do you think Kimber should have…
~smoked pot before doing these questions? Shouldn’t condone illegal behaviour
~drank liquid courage? Always a good response to any stressful situation in my view
~begged Berleen to do them (she’s better at them anyhow)? Can’t comment
~just piss off! I could have done better! I would never be so rude…

Snoop

June 17, 2009 in Reviews | Tags: , | 3 comments

SnoopWhatYourStuffSaysAb53142_fSo, given my well-known tendency to examine other people’s bookcases whenever I get the opportunity, it was probably inevitable that I would buy Snoop as soon as I saw it; especially with the subtitle “What Your Stuff Says About You”.

Sam Gosling is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas, and he specialises in studying the differences in personality and how we all form impressions of other people in our day to day lives. And one of the ways he studied this is by training students in snooping and setting them loose in the bedrooms of a sample of college students to see what they could work out about them. If that makes sense. I suppose bedrooms are apparently one of the best places to look because they tend to be private spaces where we let our guard down, so to speak. Work spaces are also a good hunting ground, but you need to be aware of any company policies on displaying personal stuff before you get too carried away.

This is an interesting read; there’s a particularly intriguing section on stereotypes and why they are not always a bad thing – we normally see them in a negative light but they can have some validity as long as we don’t rely on them too much. Though having been on the receiving end of one too many interpretations of what it is to be Scottish, I might reserve judgement.

The great pleasure for me in this book are the case studies that Gosling uses to illustrate his points, and how important it is to look at context before reaching conclusions and not be swayed by things that may be out of place. For example, one of his students wrongly identified a room as belonging to a woman based on a pair of high heels lying on the floor. This other things in the room to be interpreted in a particular way; in fact the shoes had been left behind by the occupant’s girlfriend.

The big message I took away from Snoop is that it’s almost impossible to fake a personality. There are lots of things that you can do to give a particular impression to someone else but the things that you don’t see in yourself will almost always give you away; all those things that we do unconsciously and therefore can’t adapt or amend. As someone who has difficulty throwing things away I was pleased to see a good explanation of the difference between a collector and a hoarder which I will save for the next time the Book God suggests I might want to clear out my study…..

Having said all that, I suspect that there isn’t much in here that anyone who has studied psychology a bit wouldn’t be aware of. I’m just not one of those people.

So I’m still going to check those bookcases; but I just might rummage in your medicine cabinet as well…..

An excuse for a post

June 16, 2009 in Stuff, TV & Film | Tags: , | 2 comments

Torchwood castSo this is a bit of a stop-gap post; things are still very busy at work and that means I haven’t been reading very much. It’ s on the cards that I won’t complete the Once Upon a Time III challenge as I still haven’t finished my second book with only a couple of days to go before it closes.

But there are some things worth recording:

But most importantly, I was lucky enough to get a ticket to a preview of the first episode of the new Torchwood series, Children of Earth. It was absolutely fabulous, and was followed by a discussion panel with John Barrowman and Eve Myles from the cast, the director Euros Lyn and Russell T Davies himself. A fantastic experience, but no spoilers here, I’ll review the whole series over at the Screen God once it’s been broadcast. But believe me, it’s going to be worth watching.

And I promise there will be some book reviews soon.

What’s New on Bride of the Screen God?

June 2, 2009 in TV & Film | Tags: , | Leave a comment

What did I think of the Other Mother in Coraline?

How dear to me was Cheri?

Did Star Trek boldly go, not once but twice?

How did Leo and Kate fare in Revolutionary Road?

Interesting stuff (and new books!)

May 31, 2009 in Book buys, Stuff | Tags: , | 5 comments

AliceMunro

Just a few little bits and pieces that have grabbed my attention over the last couple of days. First things first, the good news that Alice Munro won the International Man Booker Prize. I love Alice Munro; the first of her books I read was The Moons of Jupiter back in (can you believe it) January 1986 and I’ve kept more or less up-to-date since (there may be a couple lurking somewhere that I haven’t quite got around to yet) But it’s great to see someone you admire win a prestigious prize like this, isn’t it?

Pandering to my geekery is news of the new companion for the next Dr Who. She is Karen Gillan and has been in the show before as a soothsayer in the Pompeii episode (and I’m going to have to go and look at my boxed set to see if I can find her….) The best thing in this BBC storyis the quote from The Great Steven Moffat who says she is “funny, and clever, and gorgeous, and sexy. Or Scottish, which is the quick way of saying it”. I will be using that one a lot over the coming weeks, I’m sure….. I know there’s (thankfully)  a lot of Mr Tennant still to come but I am beginning to get very interested in the possibilities for the 2010 series.

It was my wedding anniversary this weekend, and the Book God and I went out shopping. Various  purchases were made and it wouldn’t have been a proper day out without a visit to a book shop. The following additions to the library were obtained:

  • The Invention of Everything Else by Samantha Hunt – all about Nikola Tesla; I’ve been interested in him for years, long before David Bowie played him in The Prestige….
  • Mr Toppit by Charles Elton – one or two favourable reviews of this on book blogs, plus I’m pretty sure I heard him being interviewed on Radio 5 at some point
  • Snoop by Sam Gosling – or What Your Stuff Says About You; whenever I go to visit anyone in their home I immediately head to the bookshelves for scout around, and this is going to reinforce my nosy parker tendencies

Now all I have to do is find the time to read them….

Thursday Thunks

May 27, 2009 in Thunks | 6 comments

thursdaythunksThese questions were submitted by Thursday Thunker participants! (so don’t blame Kimber & Berleen for the quality of the questions…..)

we are picking up where we left off last week, which explains why we are starting with #21 instead of #1. Great work on the questions submissions everyone! It gave Kimber & I a much needed mental break.
We posted these questions just as they were listedon the participant’s blog.

 

21. How many states have you been in? Two – drunken and euphoric

22. If a sexist Man is called a pig, what is a sexist Woman called? Sir?

23. You see the one person who you absolutely despise. If you were guaranteed that he/she couldn’t say or do anything back to you…. What would you do?? I would treat them with the contempt they deserve but silently so that I could also maintain the moral high ground.

24. How many states are to the right of you? And don’t give us a map to look at. None cos I’m in Europe  but Norway’s kind of in that direction…

25. You can go anywhere in the world for free. Where are you? Toronto (I’ve always wanted to go to Canada)

26. HOW MANY FINGERS AM I HOLDING UP? I dread to think

27. Are you a boxing fan? Do you think there will be a rematch of the Hatton-Pacquiao fight? No and no

28. What is the most disgusting thing you have ever eaten? Tripe (honestly, my Dad got me to try it and it was horrible)

29. Is it cloudy right now? It’s too dark to tell….

30. What is your dream job?David Tennant’s personal 24 hour bodyguard

31. Someone gives you a $500 gift card to WalMart or Target. What are you going to buy?I’m not entirely sure what they sell, but if I could exchange it for cash I would definitely blow it all on a decent handbag

32. When you were little, what did you want to be “when you grow up”? And, how much different is your occupation now from where you thought it would be when you were younger? I wanted to be a librarian; I’m a civil servant. Something tells me that’s not a huge difference…

33. What was your favorite toy as a child? A toy Panda which I still have somewhere – it will be 48 years old in December. That’s scary.

34. How do you think these things up?? I don’t, they come to me in a dream.

35. Why do you think so many “fake” veterans get away with pretending? Why don’t people question them more (especially the media who eats up their stories?) I have absolutely no idea – perhaps we just want to believe

36. What is the last place you had a good cry and why?I’m not sure but it was bound to be in response to something in a movie or on TV – I’m a sentimental old fool

37. What do you mean? 42

38. Which Sesame Street Character do you relate with the most and why? Cookie Monster for very obvious reasons

39. What song one would you listen to over and over if you absolutely had to? Helena by My Chemical Romance (at least for the moment)

40. Did you ever make what you believed at the time to be a horrible mistake – that in hindsight turned out to lead you on the best path in your life? Well there was the whole thing with my first husband, but let’s not go into that here

41. If you could change one thing on your person, what would it be? I’m largely happy with what I’ve got thank you.

42. What’s your favorite show to watch on television nowadays? Fringe

43. Do you believe there is life after death? I’m not even sure there’s life after 50, but I’ll let you know in a couple of years.

Black Butterfly

May 25, 2009 in Reviews | Tags: | Leave a comment

blackbutterflyaluciferbox52839_fSo here we have the third of the Lucifer Box novels by Mark Gatiss. Black Butterfly is set in the early 1950s with a new Queen on the British Throne and changes afoot in HM Secret Service. Lucifer is an old man now and in the throes of passing on the baton to a new generation when the uncharacteristic suicide of an old friend and several other mysterious deaths send him back out into the field to foil another dastardly plot.

This is quite consciously a spoof of James Bond type of thriller – beautiful women, exotic locations, arch humour, evil genius, convoluted plot, the world saved just in the nick of time – and for that reason I think it’s the least successful of the three books.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed watching the plot come to fruition and it was interesting to see Box try to deal with the effects of old age on a  man in his profession, but there was something too familiar about it. I suspect the problem is that James Bond has been parodied so many times (and often within its own film franchise) that I didn’t find much that was actually that new here.

It’s a shame as I really like Gatiss and I wanted to get more out of this than I actually did; I was just a wee bit disappointed that it didn’t grab me.

What’s been happening around here?

May 24, 2009 in Stuff, Theatre, TV & Film | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Romeo+JulietSo it’s all been a bit quiet here at Bride of the Book God apart from the occasional meme (thank you Thursday Thunks) and a little bit of book buying, but not much reading going on I’m afraid. Work is very busy at the moment and I must admit that my daily commute has turned into standing (almost inevitable these days) with my iPod jammed in my ears vegetating to (admittedly good) music as a means of setting me up for or unwinding from the day. I will try to do better, especially as I am behind in various challenges….

However, all of this doesn’t mean that interesting things haven’t been happening; lots of movie-going (as covered here). There is also football (St Mirren narrowly avoiding relegation on goal difference), TV (catching up with Heroes and eagerly awaiting the season finale of Fringe which is on tonight), and theatre which is where we come to yesterday’s big treat.

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to Sadler’s Wells here in London to see the Northern Ballet Theatre’s performance of Romeo and Juliet, set to Prokofiev of course (one of my favourites) as part of their 40th anniversary tour. I have a love-hate relationship with some of Shakespeare’s plays and R+J is definitely one of them – why don’t they just run away I cry to myself every time I see it. But I think it really, really works as a ballet because the heightened emotional stuff is more convincingly portrayed in dance – to my mind at least. I thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle and had a little cry at the end, being hopelessly sentimental as I am.

But I really do have to get back to that tbr pile….

Bride of the Book God

Follow brideofthebook on Twitter

Scottish, in my fifties, love books but not always able to find the time to read them as much as I would like. I’m based in London and happily married to the Book God.

I also blog at Bride of the Screen God (all about movies and TV) and The Dowager Bride, if you are interested in ramblings about stuff of little consequence

If you would like to get in touch you can contact me at brideofthebookgod (at) btinternet (dot) com.

The Sunday Salon.com

Goodreads

Blog Stats

  • 48,569 hits
March 2026
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  

Categories

Archives